Two Eggs Today! From Rosie and Stella

From a Rhode Island Red and a Buff Orpington.

Wearing Four Layers at Katy Lake

First Free Range Egg, Double Yolk

I compared our first free range egg with the Wilcox Omega 3 egg (top left), and the Fred Meyer egg (far right).  Obviously an Omega 3 egg is from hens given enriched Omega 3 feed, but not necessarily allowed to free range all day.  Our double yolked egg shows free range plus enriched Omega 3 feed-grains.

Farmer's Market - Proctor Street

Frank, Bonnie, and Diana Come For A Visit

Rue Installing Our New Kitchen Floor

Happy Spring Faces

Daniel wants a Hike - in New Hampshire

Mehran and Frank

At Rue and Annie's

Girl Talk - Daughters and Grand-daughter

Spring Hike to Murhut Falls in the Olympics

Grand-daughter Adaryn and sister Bonnie ... and son Rue

Dinner at Rue and Annie's

Frank and Diana at Starbucks

Cousin Diana at the Market and Lakewold Gardens

Bonnie, Saying Goodbye to Diana

In the Greenhouse - Sprouts for the Chickens

Fenugreek, barley, and radish sprouts.

Shopping at the Farmer's Market

My sister Bonnie and cousin Diana visited recently, to celebrate our 70th birthdays...

New Gals on the Block - Americaunas

Making Repairs to the Chicken Coop & Run

Heat Lamps at Night

The Ladies Enjoy a Sunny Afternoon

Black Maran Coop, Chicken Run, and Greenhouse

It took about two months to build this chicken coop, run, and greenhouse this winter. George helped me erect the sides and built the roof, with a wired-in area around the plum tree.

I built taller walls for the front of the run, so I could enter the run to collect straw and manure for my garden. Heat lamps keep the chickens warm at night.

I added moss to the coop roof to promote insulation, but also just to look pretty.

In the afternoon I sometimes sit inside the Maran run with my afternoon coffee and watch  my chickens. It helps them continue to be tame.

A back door to the coop can be lifted and secured, for cleaning the floor of the coop.  The extension chord for the heatlamps excits this door, and is buried in the ground. 

Everything in the chicken run and greenhouse was wired down into the ground, in two foot trenches, to deter predators.

The little greenhouse is for storing heirloom tomato plants, started from seeds collected in the fall.  It has a Dutch door and window vents for air circulation in warmer spring weather.

We hauled many loads of shredded vegetation, free from the Franklin Park garden parking lot, since the chips were an unlawful 'dump' by someone who thought they'd be useful to the gardeners.  The garden co-ordinator told me they needed to be removed so her shipment of bark chips could be delivered, so we took a lot of it home for pathways.  

All of the tagro from the huge pile in the front yard has been placed into growing berms in the backyard, awaiting spring planting.  We are hoping for a more natural Pacific Northwest garden, similar to something found out in the woods.  Weeds welcome.

The chickens in the 'Cabin Coop' continue to love their new home and run.  However, we may have fewer chickens living inside due to one or two of them being roosters. Time will tell, but I think this cabin coop will ultimately have three little hens - Wheaton Americana, Buff Orphington, and Rhode Island Red. Eggs will be blue, buff, and brown.  The Maran eggs are a deep chocolate color.  Most of the large hatcheries start selling chicks in February, but by purchasing my chicks from local breeders in December, we  should have eggs in May-earlyJune rather than waiting until August to see our first eggs.